The Dead Of Night
by Amanda Hawthorn
Summary: Valentines fic challenge. A night in a grave yard leads to a heart to heart. GS


TITLE: The Dead Of Night

Author: Amanda Hawthorn

A/N  This is my answer to the valentines challenge. Huge thanks as always to Marlou for beta-ing, and To Laura Katharine and Marlou for their encouragement.

DISCLAIMER: CSI belongs to CBS and Alliance-Atlantis Productions. No infringement intended.

1. Can't be in a traditional romantic locale (i.e., no restaurants, not at the lake, no dancing, etc.)  
  
2. It's not a date - it has to take place in a work-related scene.  
  
3. They have to share something personal.  
  
4. Uhm. It has to be G/S? That should be obvious!  
  
5. Greg has to get totally drenched with ice cold water some how. (I'm in a torture Greg mood!)  
  
6. 5000 words or less  
  
The story can have any rating you want...as much (or as little) smut as you feel is necessary.

Grissom shone his torch around the edge of a sinking tombstone and leaned in a little closer to read the name on the stone. Snapping his head up quickly, he spotted the shine of Sara's torch as she stepped past the graves on the opposite side of the path and instantly felt relief wash over his heart. For a few moments he forgot that he'd always had a phobia about cemeteries, and watched her for a few more minutes until he returned to the task at hand. Silence surrounded him as he stepped to the next grave, the only sound being the wind blowing through the trees casting an eeriness around him. Looking up he expected to see Sara again, but realized she had suddenly disappeared and lifted his torch higher to search for her.

After a few seconds he started to panic and contemplated his next move. Opening his mouth he prepared to call her name, anything to bring her out of hiding.

"Hey Grissom," she called out, causing him to jump visibly as she crossed the graveled path to walk towards him.

"God Sara," he gasped as he whirled around to face her, his breathing ragged as he tried to calm himself.

" Oops…sorry." She grinned when she caught sight of his wide eyes. "What exactly are we looking for here?"

Trying to still his tattered nerves, Grissom forced himself to regain control of his senses. "We need to find any disturbed ground or whatever evidence that one of these old graves has been disturbed." Turning to face her he caught sight of the smile forming in her eyes. "What?"

"Oh nothing," she grinned.

"Sara…" he warned, his voice lowering as he tried to sound officious. 

"I never knew that cemeteries freaked you out so much." Her beaming smile was the last thing he saw before she turned to walk away from him, shining her torch in the other direction.

"They do not freak me out," he protested loudly, his scowl deepening when she merely graced him with another bright smile and a soft chuckle.

Shaking his head, he chose to ignore her but that had become almost impossible of late. She seemed to be able to make her presence felt even if she was nowhere near him and it was causing havoc with his senses. Taking a breath, he returned to his task and started to move along the line of graves until he caught up with her just a few feet away.

Sara was standing still as she looked down at the tiny grave beside her feet. All traces of humor had long since passed, and as she met his eyes, he knew something was up.

"What's wrong?" he asked softly as he came to a stop beside her.

Shining her torch downwards, she highlighted the ground under her feet to show a tiny white gravestone. "This is the old part of the cemetery, and we know our nut ball has been robbing graves from this side of the grave yard." she told him quietly. "Look at the date of this one."

Bending down to take a better look, Grissom read the date aloud, "June 1st  2003- July 21st 2003. This has been moved."

"She was just a baby. Who could do something like this?" she asked quietly, her voice cracking slightly, "How could they?"

Grissom's eyes searched her face worriedly and he found himself leaning in towards her. Their relationship over the past few months had seemed to lose a lot of the tension to bring them a little closer day by day. Grissom had long since promised himself that he would lose many of his inhibitions since being given a new lease of life after his surgery. Sara was one of the people whom he had come to realize that he could not do without, and he had tried to bridge the divide with her over the last few weeks to at last feel their previous friendship rekindled into something stronger than before. Lifting an arm, he slid it around her shoulders and pulled her a little closer to his body. "There's some sick people out there honey, who knows what goes through their mind." 

"A good friend of mine lost her baby around the same time as this one," looking down at the stone, she swallowed back the lump in her throat. "I sat up on the phone with her all day because I couldn't be with her when she needed me, I think we both needed to help each other."

"Why didn't you ask for some time off?" he asked, his voice echoing his shock. "Sara you could have gone to her."

"Because when I was on this end of the phone I was free to cry. She needed me to comfort her and I couldn't let her see me getting upset when I was supposed to be comforting her." Shrugging sadly she tried to lighten the mood slightly. "Just don't tell anyone I blubber okay, I have a reputation to live up to."

"Sara everyone is entitled to cry, you're no different." Pulling her closer, he wrapped his other arm around her to hold her tightly against him. "Everyone cries."

"Even you?" she whispered softly into his chest.

"I wouldn't be human if I didn't," he told her gently as he placed a soft kiss into her hair.

"What upsets you Grissom?"

"We're not talking about me here," he told her quickly as he slowly pulled away from her to look down into her tear filled eyes.

Sara saw his depths and felt herself falling deeper and deeper into his gaze and everything suddenly cleared. "Whatever I did to hurt you, I'm sorry, I really am sorry." Stepping away from him, she lifted a finger to wipe her eye, but suddenly found herself captured in his arms again, his embrace tighter than before.

"It's not you Sara," he told her, his eyes closing briefly against the pain rising in his heart, only to open them again to smile down at her. "It was never you."

"I wish I could believe you," she whispered sadly, her own emotions aching to capture her soul.

Unwrapping his arms from around her body, Grissom pulled away slightly to frame her face in his hands. His eyes gazed into hers, his intensity causing her to fight for breath. "It's not you," he whispered softly, his lips edging closer to hers.

"Grissom," she whispered, her eyes fluttering closed as she awaited the heavenly contact, but the sound of footsteps quickly brought them to their senses and they sprang apart, the tender moment gone.

"Grissom, Sara," Nick called out as he pulled out his torch to shine in front of him. The passenger door slammed closed and Greg walked around to stand beside him.

"What are we doing here?" he asked quietly, his eyes trying to see through the darkness.

"Nick," Grissom called, turning away from Sara before she could regain her bearings. She stood still, staring at the man whom she had loved for years and tried to control her tremulous breathing. 

Grissom too was fighting the effects of her closeness and cursed himself for losing control. They were at a crime scene and he'd almost allowed himself to be consumed with her. Hearing the approaching footsteps, he looked up to see both Nick and Greg approaching. Glancing sideways, he saw Sara's back to him as she returned to the disturbed grave, and instantly felt the need for her creeping up inside his body.

"Yo Griss," Nick greeted, coming closer with Greg hot on his heels. "What we got?"

"Nick I want you and Greg to comb the direct area for anything that looks like it might have been moved or disturbed." Shining the torch down to the child's gravestone he nodded towards it, "this one's been obviously moved from another part of the cemetery, so I need you to keep a close eye on anything else that looks suspicious."

"Okay," Nick nodded, turning to Greg and patting his shoulder. "We'll take this side."

Before they left, Grissom called to them, making them turn quickly. "Greg make sure you stay close to Nick, I don't want you compromising any potential evidence." 

"Sure," he nodded, his voice holding a confident air before he turned and began walking with Nick, clicking on his torch in the process.

"Grissom," Sara called, her voice slightly hesitant as she hovered her torch above something in the ground. "Can you come and take a look at this?"

Turning away from the two departing men, Grissom made his way over towards her, keeping a close guard on his emotions as he came to stand beside her. "What have you got?"

"Does that look like blood to you?"

Following her gaze, Grissom crouched down to gain a closer look at the tiny specks of burgundy that could have easily gone undetected. Looking up at her, his eyes filled with pride. "Sara would you get my field kit from the car please?" 

"Sure," she nodded and turned to walk away, but he reached out to catch her hand and she looked down at him questioningly.

"Good work," he smiled, releasing her just as quickly.

"Thanks," she nodded, her smile creasing the corners of her lips as she turned away from him to begin the walk back towards their stationary Denali.

Nick and Greg were walking around some of the older graves looking for anything to indicate foul play. Suddenly, Greg gasped excitedly and moved away from Nick to point to what he had seen. "Over here Nick."

"What?" The Texan asked quickly, following his friend towards a lopsided gravestone that looked like it had been placed in the same spot centuries ago.

"Foot prints," Greg announced proudly, "look fresh too."

Shining his torch down to the floor, Nick slapped the younger man on the shoulder. "Good job Greg, what you say that we get some moldings of these shoe prints?"

"Do I get to take the pictures?" Greg asked with a huge smile.

"All in good time Greg," Nick grinned. "First off we need to make sure there's no more evidence and then you can help me process."

"Great," he beamed. "So what's first?"

"Come on buddy," Nick smiled, "this way."

Sara knelt beside Grissom as he swabbed the reddish marks on the old stone and shone her torch onto the swab, her heart stopping in her chest as she waited to see if the tip turned pink to reveal the presence of blood. When it did, she met his gaze with a smoldering one of her own and fought the urge to throw her arms around him.

"Call Greg and tell him to get this back to the lab ASAP," he smiled. "I'll see if there's any more."

"Okay," she beamed, the lightness in her heart making her feel light headed and carefree. Pulling her phone from her pocket, she dialed Nick's number and waited for him to answer. When he did, all she could hear was a loud yell that almost burst her eardrums and she pulled the phone from her ear. "Nicky?" 

"Sara," Nick gasped, his voice shaking as he tried to contain his laughter. "God Sar… can't breathe."

"Nick…what's wrong?" Turning towards Grissom, she caught his worried gaze and felt him beside her. "Something's up." 

"No," Nick gasped, trying to stop his laughter. "We're heading back your way, just shine your torch a few times so we can see you."

"Okay, but stay on the phone until you get here," Sara told him as she handed the torch to Grissom who started to wave it around in front of them.

"Okay I can see you, stay where you are." Nick's voice still tinged with laughter as he and Greg slowly made their way towards them to come out of a clearing.

The second Sara caught sight of Greg, her mouth dropped open and she stared at him in shock.

Grissom almost dropped the torch and opened his mouth to speak but decided he didn't really want to listen to an explanation.

Greg stared at them all, his clothes dripping freezing cold muddy water all over the ground around him. His hair and face was caked in mud and he resembled something from the swamp. "Don't say anything," he muttered miserably as he lifted his hands to wipe some of the mud from his eyes, which made him look like a panda bear. 

Sara couldn't help it, her stifled laughter found its way inside her chest to rumble quietly. She held a hand over her mouth, pretending to cough, but when she caught Nick's eyes, they both fell about laughing.

"How did this happen Greg?" Grissom asked, his own amusement barely contained as he tried to keep himself from laughing too.

"Nick and I found some footprints and we took photo's and molds of them. On the way back I thought I saw something move and before I could do anything I fell into an open grave." Greg's hurt expression only caused his friends to laugh harder and he threw his arms in the air casting muddy droplets to spatter in all directions.

"Greg you're contaminating our crime scene," Grissom told him quickly, hiding the fact that he wanted to lose control and give into the laughter that ached to consume him.

Swallowing down the hilarity of the situation, Nick straightened himself up and motioned in the general direction of their Denali. "Come on Greg you need to clean off."

"And take this blood sample with you," Grissom called, holding out the tubed swab to Nick.

"Sure thing," he nodded, taking the offered tube and turning back towards Greg again, silently following the younger man back towards the SUV.

When they were out of range, Grissom suddenly let out a bellowed laugh, which caused Sara to lose herself in hysterics once more. Her sides hurt with the onslaught and she held onto his arm as she tried to straighten herself up. "Oh God," she gasped. "Poor Greg."

Standing up with her, Grissom steadied himself and wiped his eyes. "Yeah it could only happen to Greg."

After a few minutes of self-composure, both felt the humor of the last few minutes leave their systems and returned to investigator mode once again.

"Okay," Grissom told her, his eyes scanning the darkness. "We can't see much in the dark, so why don't we come back here after shift when it's light?"

"Uh…" she stuttered, his closeness causing havoc with her body. "You're asking me?"

"Well you found it Sara, so you should be the one to go with it."

"You found it too," she smiled, turning to follow him as he led the way back to their Denali. 

His smile found its way to her heart and she felt the rush of warmth flood her cheeks and she hurriedly looked away. "You asked me earlier what upsets me," he whispered, slowing his pace as they neared the SUV.

"Yeah I did, but I guess you're not gonna tell me."

Opening the back door, Grissom placed his field kit onto the back seat and opened the driver's door to climb in.

Sara sighed heavily and climbed in beside him, knowing that he was withdrawing from her again. When his hand touched hers, she turned her head quickly, searching his eyes.

"Have dinner with me and I'll tell you," he whispered quietly, a smile forming on his lips.

Sara's smile beamed out to him, lifting the gloom that had possessed him for so long. "Okay."

"Good," he nodded, turning from her to start the engine. Answers would come soon enough he mused to himself with a smile, he just hoped she knew what she was letting herself in for, but as he turned to catch her gaze, he caught his breath. Sara Sidle knew exactly what she was doing, and she still strove to find the answers. Offering her one more bright smile, he drove them out of the cemetery and back towards the lab.

End


End file.
